A mother attends to her severely malnourished child at an inpatient feeding centre in Mao, Chad. Plumpy’Nut is used to treat this potentially deadly condition (UNICEF Chad/2011/ Esteve)

Elizabeth Paff, a College of Mount St. Joseph (Ohio) student, yesterday finished two weeks of running to raise donations of close to 600 meals of Plumpy’Nut for starving children. Plumpy’Nut is a peanut paste used to feed small children who suffer severe malnutrition and need life-saving intervention.

The donations were sent to Edesia, a non-profit organization that produces Plumpy’Nut and is making the food currently for malnourished children in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Chad.

Heidi Reed, the Communications Manager for Edesia, says, “We are so grateful for Elizabeth Paff for keeping up the fight, the awareness, and the funding to help save the lives of severely malnourished children. Every dollar raised brings us closer to a world where more children are given a chance at life.”

For every minute Paff ran over the last 2 weeks a donation was made equivalent to the cost of 1 package of Plumpy’nut (33 cents). For the last couple of runs the donation size was increased to 1 dollar for each minute run. Paff completed a 47 minute run on Friday adding to the total reported on the Cincinnati Enquirer web site earlier in the day.

Paff is a member of the Leadership Pathways program at the Mount and graduated from Oak Hills High School in Cincinnati. She also has forthcoming publications related to global hunger and has been quoted in the Buffalo News.

Readers are encouraged to send matching donations as a holiday gift to Edesia at www.edesiaglobal.org. Even a donation of one dollar can buy 3 meals of Plumpy’Nut.